Busy!

On the third and final part of my new short story, set on Wight. This is the second of four I plan to write (and have published digitally), thematically linked by The Jericho Society, which some of you might remember from Dark Echo. It was the satanic cult to which Harry Spalding's family had belonged in that novel and I've long thought it an invention worth re-visiting.

The stories are all going to be 25, 000 words in length, which would be about three chapters if I were writing a novel. When all four are completed, they'll be bundled together as a meatier read; though I think 25, 000 words quite a decent length for a short story. There's certainly room there for convincing characterisation, action, atmosphere and a growing sense of claustrophobic dread.

I find Wight a really inspirational place in which to set stories. Obviously it was the location for the Fischer House in THOLS. I also gave Martin Stride's children a grim time there in The Waiting Room. I first visited the island as a teenager in the summer of '76. I totally fell in love with it and have loved it ever since. I think Ventnor the most beautiful and happiest town I've ever stayed in. Why it should inspire such dark fiction in me is a bit of a mystery.

I'd never have written a short story without the invention of reader devices. Kindle and the rest have made the short story form not just viable but fashionable again. Since I really like writing to this sort of length (I've never enjoyed it more than I'm doing now), I'm immensely grateful.It's also proven to me that contrary to popular prejudice, an old dog can learn new tricks. Though you readers will be the ultimate judges of whether that's actually true.